Ade's Brauheld Pro Brewdays

[ChrisT685]

Regarding the butterfly valve on the FS, I keep it open from the start, dumped trub pretty quickly after transfer as doesn't take long for that garbage to settle out, leaving tons of room for yeast. It's gen 1 though, so I still have a ring of yeast stuck around the bottom that stubbornly refuses to drop into the bottle. lol

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Thanks Ade.

My FS arrives today so going to put a Razorback IPA kit in as a test. I was going to pop it in one of my bucket FVs but waited to use new kit

Didn't go for the pressure kit (next maybe/hopefully!!) So just got to suss out how to bottle from it without racking which kind of defeats the purpose of getting the FS in the first place..... Might be another rapid B2B order in the offing !

 

[AdeDunn]

I don't have the pressure kit either, and yeah will also be bottling without racking to a bottling bucket using the supplied screw in barb, a length of a hose and a bottling wand. That's why I dumped the trub and yeast, you do have to make sure you fill the bottle with something that won't infect your beer though before you put it back on (cooled boiled water but be aware it'll reduce SG for example, or identical wort to that in the FV, etc etc...). Basically so you don't get a bottle full of air bubbling up through your wort/beer when you put it back on and open the valve. Not a biggy when you dump trub at the start as fermentation is very active still, but more of a problem when you dump yeast. I still got a bloop though even doing that, seems that there is some sort of gap between the surface of liquid in a filled to the brim bottle, and the butterfly valve, so got a small bloop when I put it back on and opened the valve again....

Kinda thinking down the line of getting a Junior and trying out fermenting under pressure eventually.... Or maybe even 2 so I can do a closed transfer under pressure still to get the finished beer off the trub/yeast etc for serving/bottling.... I only brew small volumes now, and to be honest the full sized saurus is more than I need these days.

 

[ChrisT685]

Good advice..... Hadn't considered the fact you need to replace the bottle with something in it. Many thanks !!!

 

[AdeDunn]

Well, we bottled the Elvis Juice clone attempt today. The dry hop made a bit of a mess of it to be honest, and even a bouncer filter with the white filter fitted didn't help much. My laughable attempts to cold crash using ice packs, well I cold crashed the little collection bottle at the bottom.... lol

So sod it, either it'll settle in the bottles, or heh won't be the first time I've drunk a beer with hop particles in it (commercial ones at that....).

FG hit 1.010, for an ABV of 7.2% approx. Oops. lol I already adjusted my boil off after this brew funnily enough, as I ended up overshooting OG, undershooting volume.... I couldn't be bothered diluting though.


No been greedy here, left that rubbish in there.... lol


Well, the filter worked a little....


My wife decorated one of the bottles with some chalk pen art. Got the idea of using chalk pens to label bottles from another member on here, so easy to do.


That's out of the little 500ml bottle on the bottom of the FV, no grapefruit or sugar went into that, so I used that for my FG sample, and this photo. Oh, and had a little taste, then my wife drank the rest.... She rather enjoyed it too. lol Incredibly hoppy, in a good way. The only thing I can say for sure is that it certainly tastes like an AIPA....

Oh, and I took the FG sample of the Patterpale yesterday. It's definitely done, as it hasn't budged off an SG of 1.008 (4.7%). The sample looked lovely too, and the smell and flavour were, well, really really nice. Tropical fruit, citrus (grapefruit mainly I reckon) and I think that bit of pine so typical of APAs and AIPAs from the Simcoe (it's even more present in the AIPA).



I undershot a little on that one, and volume in FV is honestly a guesstimate.... But slowly getting there. Finding solutions for the problems etc.

We were talking about bottling that tomorrow, but looks like it'll be Sunday now. Mrs is absolutely over tired.

 

[ChrisT685]

Elvis Juice clone is definitely on my to do list.... Looking at that picture of your sample, it's next on the list !!

 

[AdeDunn]

Elvis Juice clone is definitely on my to do list.... Looking at that picture of your sample, it's next on the list !!

The PatterPale sample tasted pretty good too (bottom 2 pics), galaxy, citra+ simcoe APA. :) In the midst of bottling at the moment, just transferred it to the bottling vessel, just letting it settle again before I start as sucked a tiny bit of yeast from the racking tap at the very end of transfer.

Re the Elvis Juice Clone, I forgot to say, I added the cold pressed pink grapefruit extract at a rate of 1ml per litre at bottling, rather than using peel. I also forgot to add any orange extract (I have a bunch of bottled extracts that actually taste like what they claim to be, rather than like chemicals.... Look for Nielson Massey in your supermarket), so not a 100% accurate clone.

 

[AdeDunn]

Well, we got around to bottling the PatterPale after all. 10 litres transferred from the FV to my Fermentasaurus. Has to make an adaptor to get the hoses to all fit together, as Speidel taps are a bit bigger. So, a length of 12mm PVC hose, one of those pastic sython taps and a jubilee clip, et voila, I was able to connect up normal 8mm tubing to it.



I sucked up a tiny bit of yeast near the end of transfer, so not quite as clear as it was.



10 litres transferred, left a fair bit behind as I'd rather that than be greedy and end up sucking more yeast across. Lost about 250mls flushing through the tube and bottling wand, left 250mls behind in the saurus, gave me 19 bottles all nicely filled with beer.


I may have rearranged the bottles so that the blue caps and purple caps were all lined up....... I bought a pack of caps in mixed colours, what can I say.... lol

My darling wife once again engaged in a little bit of bottle art on one of the bottles. She got a bit annoyed with me when I pointed out that the P in pale was supposed to be a capital, as in PatterPale, so I decided not to get her to change it...


She's starting to remind me of Pan's People.

 

[AdeDunn]

Bit of prep for my next brew day, zested 4 oranges, for an orange infused pale ale. I plan to add the juice from them to the boil too.

 

[cheeseyfeet]

Orange pale sounds good! Please do share the recipe, I have a kg of mandarina Bavaria in the freezer I've been getting through slowly, always thought adding some real orange would work nicely with it.

 

[AdeDunn]

I used Mandarina Bavaria in a Belgian Wit once, was absolutely delicious! Much nicer than using Saaz etc. Cascade for this though:-

Estimated 60% Efficiency 14 L batch size

24 hour cold steep

20g black malt (for colour only)

75 minute mash at 67 degrees C

Maris Otter: 3.7k
Weyermann Carared 0.28k

75 minute boil

@75 mins 4g magnum 12.5%AA

@20 mins 40g Cascade 7.3%AA

@10 mins zest of 4 oranges

@5 mins juice of 4 oranges
@5 mins 0.25 tspn Tronozymol yest nutrient

@Flameout 40g Cascade 7.3% AA

Cool to 39degrees C, transfer to FV and pitch Voss Kveik. FV has an insulating jacket.

It's an untested recipe, there's a chance that the Voss may blow out anything later than the 20 minute hops, hence I'm only doing the 20 minute hop (combining most of the IBUs, flavour and aroma), the flameout hop on the off chance I can get some extra aroma in there, and the bittering hop at the start. If samples lack aroma, I have a backup plan of dry hopping with a bit of Amarillo, another really orangey hop. I'm reckoning on not needing to though.

 

[AdeDunn]

20g of black malt weighed out:-



and cold steeping (hopefully enough water to do the job) ready for a brew day tomorrow.



Sure it's only 20g, and I could have just put it into the grist to mash... But the last time I made a beer with a similarly tiny amount in the mash I hated the flavour of it, it ruined the beer. Maybe in a dark beer, other strong malts would mask it, but in a pale it stands out like a sore

 

[matt76]

I used Mandarina Bavaria in a Belgian Wit once, was absolutely delicious! Much nicer than using Saaz etc. Cascade for this though:-

Estimated 60% Efficiency 14 L batch size

24 hour cold steep

20g black malt (for colour only)

75 minute mash at 67 degrees C

Maris Otter: 3.7k
Weyermann Carared 0.28k

75 minute boil

@75 mins 4g magnum 12.5%AA

@20 mins 40g Cascade 7.3%AA

@10 mins zest of 4 oranges

@5 mins juice of 4 oranges
@5 mins 0.25 tspn Tronozymol yest nutrient

@Flameout 40g Cascade 7.3% AA

Cool to 39degrees C, transfer to FV and pitch Voss Kveik. FV has an insulating jacket.

It's an untested recipe, there's a chance that the Voss may blow out anything later than the 20 minute hops, hence I'm only doing the 20 minute hop (combining most of the IBUs, flavour and aroma), the flameout hop on the off chance I can get some extra aroma in there, and the bittering hop at the start. If samples lack aroma, I have a backup plan of dry hopping with a bit of Amarillo, another really orangey hop. I'm reckoning on not needing to though.

This is really interesting mate, I'll be interested to hear how it turns out. Well have to add something similar to my to-brew list

I was reading it thinking I'd be hopping this with Amarillo but I then I saw you have that as a backup dry hop

With the timings of the orange zest and juice my instinct would be to add these at flameout/whirlpool for fear of driving off the volatiles in the boil - what's your thinking on this?

Good luck with the brew

 

[AdeDunn]

My thinking is, it depends on the temperature you are going to whirlpool at and for how long. You need to sanitise the zest in some fashion in case there are wild yeasts/bacteria on it, so choices are boil it, or soak it in vodka. Boiling is simpler. If you are going to go with soaking it in vodka, you may as well add it in secondary and keep even more of the volatiles, as here's the thing, that's Kveik going in there, it's going to blow a lot right out of the airlock anyway. I've boiled zest/peel before though (wheat beers) and it seems to extract flavour and aroma that stays in the beer to the end, and I'm just too lazy for faffing around with secondary.

It's like mead making though, the argument of boiling the honey vs not boiling the honey. Lots of people reckon you drive off the honey flavours when you boil it, thing is I have always boiled the honey (even when I used raw African rainforest honey, now that was some nice mead... lol) and the honey flavour was right there in the mead every time. There's also a debate out there re hop additions (I refuse to take sides) quietly going on that 20/15 minutes gives plenty of flavour and aroma, and all hopping later does is increase the volatility of the hop flavours and aroma in the finished beer.

Brewing is full of debate and opinions like this, so I tend to just do what I do, and enjoy the beer.

 

[matt76]

Thanks dude. I think personally I'd be comfortable that pasteurisation occurs quick enough even at whirlpool temperatures (well, for me anyway - I do mine around 90degC) that any nasties would be dealt with.

But for sure I'm still far from convinced what difference there is between boiling hops (or fruit!) for 5-10 mins or whatever vs. adding at flameout/whirlpool.

Brewing is full of debate and opinions like this, so I tend to just do what I do, and enjoy the beer.

Yup - I'll certainly drink to that!

 

[AdeDunn]

It's been a fun day so far.... Little booboo with my wife plugging the bread maker into the same socket as my Klarstein was plugged into... I hadn't realised, heating the water up to mash, bread machine goes into bake mode, badumph, fuse trips (as it would....).... So, I wait until the bread has finished, and carry on (my wayward son...), dough in nicely, only to realise my machine has gone nuts and I've just doughed in and 80 degrees C... Drain boiler, bin malt... Start again from the top.... Just as well, switched to milling by hand, using the drill I got too many smaller particles been produced, that got through the bottom of the malt bucket. Pics later.

 

[AdeDunn]

Finally finished and cleaned up, after the delay and fubar...

ALMOST hit my target OG, I was 2 points short with 1.050 rather than 1.052. Given I got 15 litres into the FV though rather than 14, that's probably where those 2 points went to... lol I promised pics I believe, so on we got...

So yeah, milling with a drill, didn't really work out... Produced a lot of very small particles (found this out on the aborted run)



Might be worth a revisit once I get the hang of milling maybe.

Had to tweak the recipe slightly as didn't have quite enough of the carared, so replaced 60g of it with Maris Otter.


Almost at mash temp, I didn't use manual mode the second time, just recipe mode....



Draining the grain..



Black malt extract... My wife wasn't too impressed. lol



Squeazy, not easy... Juice to go in around the 5 minute mark. Done by hand, with a fork.



Hubble, bubble, toilet trouble if you overdo the Epsom.... I've stopped adding any at the request of my wife, I think maybe we have enough magnesium in our supply.... lol



Yeah, wind warning + rain = closed one of the side walls.... Nobody can call me a fair weather brewer. lol



The wort ran super clear though, so was all worthwile in the end. As I mentioned, 15 litres at 1.050 OG.



In with 1/2 packet of rehydrated Lallemand Voss...

Continued......

 

[AdeDunn]

Ok, probably should have put this one in the above post....



Transferring the wort, via a bouncer filter. Needn't have bothered, filter wasn't needed. It did however extend the pipe nicely.... lol



Sadly the wort had dropped to 32 degrees C by the time we got it's coat on...



The yeast doesn't seem to care however... I mean, ewww! Airlock is going already too.



Just a small sample of the wort.... I did taste it a little, it tasted like wort, flippin' horrid. lol We don't actually use that glass by the way, as we know it's cracked (much like me), that's why I used it for the sample.



Cleaning the plate chiller. It'd already been backflushed with the hose, at this point I was just cleaning it with PBW, then rinsed it. Easy. It gets attached 15 minutes before the end of boil and boiling wort pumped through it, same way as you would with an immersion chiller, too. Comes keen if you touch it whilst attaching the hose when it comes time to cool the wort I can tell you....

Anyway, that's all folks. Hopefully it turns out ok. Not used the Lallemand Voss before, only the Yeast Bay stuff (wasn't overly impressed with that to be honest).

 

[AdeDunn]

That's some of the fastest yeast I've ever used.... The airlock is going like the clappers, even though temps have dropped to 28 degrees C.

 

[ChrisT685]

As ever great write ups !!

 

[AdeDunn]

Poured a bottle of the PatterPale (Galaxy, Citra, Simcoe) to see how it was progressing (as you do). The answer been, quite nicely. I know a few people who would like it at the level of carbonation it's at right now, for me I'd like a little more though. Flavour is good though, and the clarity, well I think a photo says more.



No trouble with the US 05 not sticking to the bottle either when I poured.